66. Plans for the spare bedroom.

The spare bedroom in our apartment is pretty much our dumping ground.  Don’t have a place for that box of random cords?  Just put in the back room.  Folding tables?  Back room.  Stuff you might eventually list on eBay?  You guessed it, back room.

But that’s all going to change!

It’s always been the plan to use the back room as a little studio for my jewelry and as a space for overnight guests to feel cozy.  I’ve been putting the transformation off for quite a while, but my dad will be visiting next week and I figured it’s now or never.  I think he might want an actual bed to sleep on.

I set up my studio space against one wall, which leaves plenty of room for a full-size bed.  We decided on this one from Ikea:

Fjellse bed from IKEA

It doesn’t have the greatest reviews regarding durability, but I’m hoping it will last us a bit longer since it will be used pretty infrequently.

Since the walls are painted a dark gray, I wanted the bedding to be bright and fun.  I ended up choosing this set from Target.

Room Essentials Chevron Bed in a Bag from Target

I was surprised to find that the actual color is more of a seafoam green, not true mint green.  I was on the fence about it, but I think it still looks nice enough to keep.

As for the mattress, we took a gamble and ordered a mattress in a box from Walmart.  Yep, you can order a mattress that comes rolled up and vacuum-sealed in plastic.  I was pretty apprehensive as to whether it would be of decent quality and at least somewhat comfortable, but I’m pretty impressed, especially for the price.  If you want to check it out for yourself, this is the one we ended up going with.  For reference, we got ours on sale for $149.  Not bad for a full-size mattress, especially since shipping was only $5 (it was actually free, but I upgraded to make sure it got here on time).  We will see how it feels once we get the bed set up.

Speaking of which, the bed frame is getting delivered today!  After tonight, we will have an official guest bedroom…something I have never, ever had before.  I’ll make sure to take some photos once everything is set up…and organized. 🙂

XO,
Gabriella

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65. Before and After: Thrift Store Art

I bought a really cool framed art print at Goodwill a while back.  You can see it hanging behind our dining room table.

I love the print, but the frame is not very appealing.  I mean, it’s fine as-is, but it’s just…boring.  Nah mean?

I finally got around to painting the frame last week, and now I think I love this print even more.

The color is called “sea life”.  It’s of course by Behr, my favorite paint.  Tip for getting small amounts of paint on the cheap: just ask them to tint one of the testers for you.  It’s actually quite a bit of paint!  I bought one for a previous project, used the leftover on this frame, and there is STILL about half the container left.  Much cheaper than buying acrylic paints in the little tubes.

As I do with every other Before & After post, here is a side-by-side comparison.

SO much better.  It seemed so solemn before, but now I think it’s much happier.  Hooray for happy art!

XO,
Gabriella

 

64. Shame on me.

Holy #$%^, I am really a terrible blogger, aren’t I?  I haven’t written anything in two months!  I swear I have some good excuses, but I won’t list them.  Okay, maybe I’ll just mention that I had a summer student I had to create a project for and occupy for the past 10 weeks.  And two more jewelry shows.  And a handful more that I’m preparing for over the next 5 months.  And I made a ton of new stuff for my Etsy shop, all of which is slowly getting photographed and listed.  And I started a band with my husband and a new drummer and we’ve been practicing twice a week.

Nope, I haven’t been busy at all. 😉

Anyway, the real purpose of this post is for me to give a formal apology.  So, here it goes: I’m sorry!  I’m so sorry for anyone who has been anxiously awaiting a message in her inbox announcing that I have a new post.  (Are there any of you?  Anyone?) I hope you’ll still read about my crazy crafting adventures and attempts to build my own furniture.

I honestly didn’t realize how long it’s been since my last post.  Not until last week’s email asking me if I was ever going to do a full post for our knockoff Restoration Hardware platform bed.  Answer: Yes, I am!  And soon!  I promise.  (Fah realz this time.)

So, what’s new with all of you cool cats?  Anyone make anything fancy lately?

I’ll be back…tomorrow!

XO,
Gabriella

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